Silvopastured milking goats - mobile or stationary milking parlor?

We have recently put a small milking herd of Nigerian dwarf goats to rotationally graze our 38 acre orchard land. We will be milking them in about a month and are trying to get a handle on the best way to design the milking station. I am very interested in what folks do out there and would love to hear all about it. I think I would prefer to train the goats to come with me to the parlor from wherever they are on the land, but a couple are skittish and I wonder if I would succeed taking them for a walk every milking time. Tell me what you do!

How many goats do you have, and are you going to be miking by hand or with a machine?

We are getting ready to milk 3 - by hand, of course. But the herd is growing and there will be sheep to milk in the coming year too. We have always milked in the shed next to a permanent pasture until now.

I’ve never had or thought on mobile milking station. It just seems too much trouble.

I’m pretty sure you could do it if you wanted to, and of course, a lot of what and how you do will depend on your land and your situation.

My goats sleep in a shed at night, and spend the day in temporary paddocks throughout the place. This means that every morning I take them from their night shed, and we stop at the big barn where the ones that are milking get milked, and the ones that are not are waiting. Then, when we’re done milking, I take them to their day area. One or two in a leash, and the others would follow.

At night, I just let them loose, and they go to their night shed by themselves.

We’ve been, me and the goats, doing this for several years, so they’re all very used to the routine, and there are no surprises, usually. They like routine very much.

Thank you so much for sharing that. Your routine is in line with how I imagine the whole thing going but wanted to hear that it worked for others.